The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-23

Ill dlLuOSb uuIuOIOuSlv QulCh LIOIt anu
it takes trained pedestrian to keep up
with his obstinate, springy stride.
He rarely reads or writes long at
time. He never does either i'm
mediately before or after eating. He
always eats sparingly. but of the most
nutritious food, whose preparation is
personally supervised by Mrs. Glad
stone or some member of the house
hold. He likes glass of claret or
champagne with his dinner, and plenty
of sprightly conversation; but he will
do without the wine and not miss it if
the talk be vivacious. His converse
tional capacity is evidently boundless.
Having memory almost phenomenal
in range and tenacity, he draws upon it
as gayly as vintner upon his cellar;
and, like wine, the oldest stock is often
the most delicious. He can summon
personal recollections of interesting
men in all walks of life with sponta-
neous accuracy; and only those who
have heard him at the table, when all
political care was dismissed for the day,
can credit the amazing range of his &C
quaintance with the curious and
picturesque lite of England wholly
apart from its politics.
He IS merry as child when acting
host or being private guest: but how
ever gay his ak, there is always per-
vadlng dignity IN his bearing and
language, and no one will ever presume
10 be familiar with him. Lowell says,
you remember, that John Milton was
not man 10 be slapped upon the back.
Neither is Gladstone You may laugh
at his Jest and return anetdote for
anecdote to his gleeful satisfaction. But
no man ever saw him out of that noble
suaviiy which becomes so well his age,
his rank in the world of statecraft and
of letters, and his achievements in both.
The untaught rustic winding his long
whip over team of oxen down the
highway, would look with impulsive
pleasure upon man in his shirt sleeves
backing away at the solid trunk of
giant oak; but the moment he saw the
aXman'S eyes, the moment the 1.-the,
strong booy of the chopper assumed an
upright pose, even he would pull off his
hat and silently acknowledge the pre-
senCe of man of power.
His house life is chiefly life OF study.
In the principal drawing room,
beautiful sunny apartment. enlivened
by Greek pillars of white picked out
with god, there are portraits OF his own
and Mrs. GladstO e's ancestors and
sculptures of ideal subjects. In the
library there are dozen pusts of great
men OF our own time, all gifts from
either the artists or the subjects, or
friends. The furnishing and decoration
of the two favOrite rooms are in quiet
taste, but rich and learned, for Mr..
Gladstone has a passion for beauty.
kept pure by his habitual clOseneSs to
nature. The furnishing is not excessive,
d everything, from the Towering
on the capitals of the columns to the
desks upon which he writes in the
library has beauty and distinctive
character besides. The same en-
| lighted taste is seen throughout the
spacious house. Each member has a
portion of it Tor his or her own; and the
difference of personality is shown in the
several libraries, in the brio a-brac and
pictures by which the walls are adorned
and the tables strewn.
When at work Mr.. Gladstone is a
serious and absorbed man. There are
thousands of books in the house, most
OF them in the shelving of the large
chief library. He said to your CORE
spondent that the only rewards ever
! paid by blu in his family were gwen
| for discovery of new places to put
books. His idea of order Is so acute
and his consciousness of place so DIS
| yinct that although be USES no cata
| IOgue, he knows perfectly well what
| BOOKS he has covering any line of III
veStigatiOn, and he can go dirtc iy 10
the spot and shelf to get The particular
one he may desire, His library is one
of standard works only; he has no rou m
and no liberation Tor mere book Tedund-
ancy. Many of his finest sets of great
| works are presentation autograph
Int -i, II,r HI hoh ~ tlta
! most valuable private library III Eng
land, if not i'll the world. Science, art,
poetry, travel, have all loved to pour
their riches into his lap, and all have
! found in him lover and a student.
His mode of working is pc lis ent
and characteristic. He never reads
book through at once unless 1t be a
short one or it's subject matter merely
recreative. Ii reading for results, for
the clearing up of doubt, for the con
struction of an argument, for the
Strengthening of conviction, he stops
as soon as he feels that substantial
gain has been made; and then he reads
the same over twice or thrice, be it
paragraph or page or charter, until he
has so perfectly absorbed 1t that he can
almost repeat its text. He has for sur
plusage the scent of hunter for a false
trail lie Will leap over parts or books
as blithesome as the hunter takes the
bitches and the fences on the way to
the fox cover. So he rarely reads
Froude for history, becauses he likes
highways and daylight for facts and
dislikes the delays of excursion Into the
underground and shru obery oil a mans
imaginative treatment OF them.
He does little desultory reading of
late years. He reads for definite pur-
pose. He has always had this scientific
habit. To it he owes his thorough
mastery of every subject upon which
he has spent time. To it he owes his
| Ignorance of many subjects which have
never come within the duties OF his
state. He never read, even for young
man, for the mere sake of reading.
| Whatever subject occupied his
| thoughts, to that he confined all his
mental occupation. This is why he has
mastered the IRISH question so late in
life. For most Englishmen it never be-
fore was worthy their grave considera-
ton. It is safe to say that even now
few of them know how little or how big
the island is, or whether the inhabit-
ants are cannibals. The true English
man ia very insular egotist. But